Saturday 13 October 2018

Welling United 2 v Slough Town 1

Welling are up to second in the table, two points behind leaders Billericay courtesy of a hard-fought win over Slough Town. The sun was out and so were the shorts again today as the mercury touched an unbelievable 75F in mid-October. A decent 'non-league day' gate of 953 boosted by a credible 100 or so from Slough.

Spurred by the return of hit-man Adam Coombes, Welling took the lead after only two minutes as Coombes arrived to plant a firm Jack Jebb free-kick beyond Jack Turner in the visitors goal. For the next twenty minutes we waited for the second and had visions of a rout. A Jebb-inspired midfield had Slough working overtime. Nassim L'Ghoul was getting past his man and crossing at will and Slough were struggling to deal with it. It looked a matter of time but then Jebb went down after a nasty looking collision and he didn't get up again. As he was stretchered off, Slough broke with great pace and swift passing movement that was unfortunate not to see them back on level terms. 

Jebb's replacement, David Ijaha usually sits in front of the back four where he relies upon his size to provide cover and initiate some attacks. He is no midfield General by any stretch of the imagination and Welling were notably mooted from there on. They should still have gone in two-up at the break after chances from Kiernan and L'Ghoul were missed. 

After the break Slough were level within a minute with a well worked header and from there it was nip and tuck with the visitors having more possession and they could have been in front by the time Jordan Gibbons was brought down for the Wings after a marauding run into the box. Adam Coombes wasted no time spotting the ball and he had beaten Turner with his eyes before he prodded the ball low to the keeper's right. Welling had left it late so there wasn't really time for a Slough fightback. 

Let's hope Jebb's injury is not as serious as it looked. He is needed to lead the promotion push.

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